Another artist, Nora Roman who worked on the mural at the Bernal Heights mural has called for a halt to the demolition being pushed by the SF Library Commission, SF Librarian Luis Herrera and the conflicted Bernal Heights Library Art Project.

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Library Users Association

P.O. Box 170544, San Francisco, CA 94117-0544

PRESS RELEASE CONTACT: Peter Warfield

October 3, 2012 Tel./Fax: (415) 753-2180; cell (415)735-8963

Another Artist Asserts Rights

To 90-day Opportunity to Remove Bernal Mural;

Library Announces Bernal Mural Removal

to Begin October 4

San Francisco, October 3, 2012 – An artist who helped paint the community-created Victor Jara mural on Bernal Heights Branch Library today asserted her rights to 90-day notice prior to destruction of the mural so that she may have an opportunity to remove it. Nora Roman, whose name is listed on the mural as one of the artists, sent a letter to the City Librarian and other San Francisco officials asserting her rights under the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA). If the library honors her request, as it did a prior one made in June by Nancy York, sister and heir of another artist with rights under the law, the mural removal would be delayed 90 days after the library provides its formal notification. CAPA provisions include a requirement that the owner of a work of art that is to be destroyed must give 90 days notice to the artist so that he or she may remove the work. No such notice had been given to Ms. Roman as of yesterday, October 2, the date City Librarian Luis Herrera announced that the mural would be painted out in two days, October 4. He spoke in the Bernal Heights Branch, during one of 11 previously-scheduled meetings citywide to discuss with the public the library’s open hours for the next five years. Peter Warfield, Executive Director of Library Users Association, said it appeared that the library had made no effort to locate Ms. Roman, to offer her, as one of the artists, an opportunity to remove the mural. “Even though Nora Roman’s name is on the side of the mural as one of the artists, the library did not bother to let her know what it planned for the mural – namely complete destruction followed by replacement with something that leaves out any reference to the most important elements of the existing mural,” he said. Mr. Warfield said the planned replacement gives an unexplained “financial fee” of $16,800 to the Friends of SFPL, where no such fee was involved in an original refreshment plan previously approved by the Library Commission in 2009. The October 2 meeting at the branch heard a number of Bernal residents and non-residents express opinions about the mural, including several who strongly supported refreshing rather than replacing it. At the October 2 meeting, City Librarian Luis Herrera refused repeatedly to answer Library Users Association questions as to why the plan for paint-out was not occurring in mid-October – the date given to two other mural artists, Carlos Alcala and Jo Tucker in notification letters sent in mid-July. Alcala and Tucker are also listed on the mural credits on the library’s Moultrie Street façade.

SF City Librarian Luis Herrera is pushing to demolish the Bernal Heights Victor Jara mural before all the artists have been contacted and has supported the financial conflicts of interest including his own $3,000 a month slush fund he gets from the Friends Of The San Francisco with no transparency of where the money is going. The "Friends" are also getting over $16,000 as "fiscal Agent" for the destruction of the Bernal Heights Library murals.